Cameron Olthuis

There’s a lot of drama going down about some FM advertising campaign from Microsoft called ‘People Ready‘. Basically what happened is a bunch of well known bloggers talked about how their businesses became people ready and Microsoft took those quotes, put them on banner ads, and is now running those ads on those same blogs. Apparently this has upset some folks.

I don’t want to get involved in the ethics behind this as there are already plenty of valid arguments from both sides being made. But while the blogosphere bitches back and forth like a couple of newlyweds, Microsoft is laughing all the way to the bank. This campaign has already created more mindshare, discussion and buzz then they ever could of hoped for.

The only real winner here is Microsoft. This is also a huge opportunity for them to take this campaign to the next level. Are they smart enough to figure it out and take the ball and run with it?

Did that get your attention? No, I’m not going to write another SEO is dead or all SEOs are scumbags post. Actually just the opposite.

There’s been a lot of hate towards SEOs and the industry lately. Most of which has been led by Jesus Calacanis. Just for the record I happen to think Jason is a brilliant guy and I respect him a lot. I don’t agree with half the shit that comes out of his mouth, but then again I’m not so sure he does either. I think he’s just an attention whore and attention he gets.

For the most part I’ve been watching the battle from the sidelines. Listening to both sides of the story but refraining from jumping in with another me-too rebuttal. I decided this morning that I want to add my two-cents.

As the CEO if an Internet company (or any company for that matter) — if you don’t want traffic from Google you should be fired. Simple as that. If by now, you don’t understand the value of Google rankings then you’re an idiot.

I’m not talking about spamming and ranking for obscure crap that is irrelevant to your business. But if you’re not fighting for a top 3 spot for relevant terms then you have no business running a company. It’s common sense really.

And that’s really all I have to say about that.

Not five minutes after I post about picking a brand over keyword domains comes news that Business.com is on the block for 400-500 million. Business.com was bought back in ‘99 for what then was the largest domain purchase ever at 7.5 million. Turns out that it was a huge win for them.

My question is — how much did the domain factor in toward their success? They don’t even rank number one for business. It obviously had something to do with it though as that’s a domain that would get a lot of type in traffic.

It’s pretty interesting to watch what’s been happening with domains lately. Seniors.com just sold for 1.8 million tonight. While there are a lot of smart plays you could arguably make with it, I tend to think 1.8 mil is overboard for that specific domain. Not to mention SEO.com selling for 5mil earlier in the week.

Now, I don’t claim to be a domain expert but I really can’t see that much value in a domain that, in my opinion, wouldn’t get THAT much type in traffic. And while many think this could be a good real estate investment, I disagree. I do agree though; that there are a lot of domains that are hot buys right now, even at the astronomical prices. This just isn’t one of them. But again, I’m not a domain expert so I could be off.

I’d rather buy something brandable and use the 1.8mil to start building toward a billion dollar audience. Afterall, the biggest and most valuable properties on the web aren’t Search.com, Portal.com, Encyclopedia.com and Social.com.

In most verticals I would choose brand over keyword specific domain any day. I understand most of these purchases probably aren’t for the sake of developing an iconic brand, rather having real estate that hopefully continues to increase in value. I wonder who typically makes more — a real estate developer or someone that buys and holds?

I guess my whole point is that some of these domain purchases seem like they are out of control.

My hat’s off to Danny Sullivan and the entire Third Door Media team for putting on a fantastic conference. In my opinion, SMX was easily one of the better, if not the best, conferences in our industry. It was the little things that made the difference too. For example; warm buffet style lunches instead of box lunches, snacks and drinks at all times, and the open parties to name a few.

My only complaint for the entire conference was from the last session called “Give it Up”. This session was the one where presenters were supposed to give up their favorite SEO secrets or tips. Unfortunately only half of the presenters had anything useful to say. A couple of them had no real tips or advice or gave the most basic SEO advice I could imagine. The ones that did give good tips though were awesome, so I guess that makes up for it.

Here are some pictures from the “Better Ways” panel which was a blast.

I’ll be attending the San Diego BarCamp tomorrow for most of the afternoon. Looking forward to meeting more people in the San Diego area that are into the web scene. We have a nice little tech community going on here now.

Sunday afternoon I am flying to Seattle for Danny Sullivan’s new conference, SMX. On Tuesday afternoon I’m on the Better Ways panel. Also on the panel is Alex Bennert, Greg Boser, Jim Boykin, Christine Churchill, Todd Friesen, and Aaron Wall. Wow, talk about a talented panel. I’m expecting to a learn a lot of new tips from these guys.

Hope to see you there.